Energizing Your Closet

July 6, 2015

Energizing Your Closet

Last week I did a book review of Marie Kondo’s best-selling The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up. This week I wanted to put one of her recommendations to the test. To energize your closet, she recommends taking 10 minutes to arrange your clothes from left to right in the order of heavy to light. This means longer and darker clothing should hang on the left and then work upward to lighter clothing on the right.

Kondo maintains that even if you have your clothes sorted by category, there is nothing to stop your closet from becoming messy again, but this technique will. She claims “When you stand in front of a closet that has been reorganized, so that the clothes rise to the right, you will feel your heart beat faster and the cells in your body buzz with energy. This energy will also be transmitted to your clothes. Even when you close the closet door, your room will feel fresher. Once your have experienced this, you’ll never lose the habit of organizing by category.”

So here is a before and after photo of my closet. There are some challenges. Of course, to make an even transition across from dark to light was impossible without breaking up categories. I kept my pants separate, because they hung shorter. They went to the right. I decided to combine my shirts, however. Short sleeves went with long sleeves and pullovers. Transitioning shirts with dark and white patterns was difficult, but I think I was able to achieve the overall effect.

I tried the same thing on my linen closet. I don’t get the left to right effect here, but I did get the rising lightness of color. I stayed within the categories of sheets, towels, and hand towels, but it still looks different enough.

I’m not quite sure how this is going to help me stay organized, but I will try it for a while and see if I experience the magic. Yes, I felt more energized afterwards. but that might just have been from trying something new. We’ll see how I feel when I open up my closet tomorrow morning.

What do you think? Do the closets on the right look lighter and more inspiring to keep organized? Are you going to try this?

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Comments 2

I wouldn’t have thought I’d see a difference, since your ‘before’ closets were so neat and organized. But your clothes ‘Kondo’ closet definitely looks better! The real test, though, will be if it works better for you, so please let us know! I barely notice the difference in your linens, so again, let us know if you feel a difference! (Does your heart beat faster?)

I have to say I’m not sure I would have noticed the difference. I think this level of organizing is something that appeals to us (organizers), probably more than it would to the general public. But hey, I’ll be interested to see if you like it. I agree that organizing a closet by type of item, and within that by color, works well.